The Family Portrait that Never Was
by RedHeadedGoddess
Summary: DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS  Though geez if you don't know by now...  A short bit about Teddy Lupin and his parents.


Teddy Lupin was not even a month old when his parents were killed in the Battle at Hogwarts. He had no memories of the little time spent as a family. Yes after their death he lived with his Grandmother and spent most of his time with the Potters. He knew the meaning of family, just not the way everyone else did.

When he was seven years old Harry pulled him away from the usual dinner and sat him down to tell him about his parents. About how brave and smart his father was. How fast and brilliant his mother was. How they had made quite a pair and Teddy was the best of both his parents. And how their death's made it so Teddy could live in a world much better then this one.

And then he pulled out a picture of the second Order of the Phoenix. Teddy didn't need Harry to tell him which two were his parents. He could pick them out even if he hadn't seen pictures of them before. He had the same soft brown eyes as his father, one lighter then the other, and his mother's hair kept changing color, just like Teddy's did. But even more obvious to the boy then the shared features (He had the same crooked nose of his father as well, and his mum's eyebrows) was the look the two shared. Even in the picture Teddy could see the love the two had for each other. The love they would have shared with him.

At eleven years old Teddy sat at the Hufflepuff table, staring past the table next to it to the red and gold table. That was the house he should have been in. His father's house, his godfamily's house…And what he believed to be his mother's house as well. How had he ended up in Hufflepuff? Everything he had ever heard about Hogwarts from people outside of his family was that Hufflepuff was the most useless house there.

It was almost Teddy's twelfth birthday when he was found in the hall with the list of all the people who had died at the Battle of Hogwarts. He was staring at his parent's names with a sadness that he couldn't get rid of. It was then that he noticed each name had a small shield of the house they were from. His mother's name had the Hufflepuff shield next to it and Teddy smiled. At least he knew he was in the right house after all. He gently traced the shield by Tonk's name before leaving.

Thirteen was the year Teddy started to draw. He sat underneath the plague with all the names on it and drew. Here was where he felt closest to his parents, though he had heard about where his father used to spend the full moons. His first picture was a mess, he tried to draw the picture he had of the Order.

At sixteen Teddy finally drew the picture perfectly and moved onto something else.

It was a week before Teddy was done with school when he finally knew what he wanted to draw the most. He spent hours sitting under the plague just drawing, not caring about anything else. He finished it after he had already missed a whole day of classes and was cutting it close to curfew, not that anyone came into this section of the castle besides him. He ripped the piece of paper from his sketchpad and folded it up, tucking it behind the plague. He didn't want to share the picture of his family with anyone. Because it was the only picture he would ever had of his real family. 

Three years later Scorpius Malfoy, age 11, stared up and the list of names with awe. The only thing that hurt the young boy was the fact that few Slytherins were on the list of honored. He only cared because his parents were both from Slytherin. He himself had been placed in Ravenclaw.

It was while he was looking at the name, committing each to memory, that he noticed a piece of paper. He reached up and pulled it from where it had been wedged behind the list. He unfolded it and stared at the three people in the picture. They all had kind smiles and looked happy together. The only thing that left the boy confused was the date. It was dated three years ago but the names of the people on there were from the list he had been looking at.

He turned the picture over and blinked when he saw the loopy signature and title on the back.

_Teddy R. Lupin_

_The Family portrait that never was_


End file.
